March 05, 2020

All the Natalie Portmans at the MCC Theater

A white girl in a black tutu pirouettes onstage in a dour apartment, a fantasy vision of Natalie Portman in Black Swan. Reminiscent of other works with movie stars in the name (Being John Malkovitch/ Searthing for Debra Winger), All the Natalie Portmans, an off- Broadway debut by C. A. Johnson at the MCC Theater, the conceit gets a smug laugh. For Keyonna, a queer charter school student who fixates on white actresses—see her vision board where Winona Ryder also has pride of place—the apparition is life-saving, as is the pop-up presence of all the Natalie Portmans, from Queen Amidala to her youthful breakout role in The Professional. Beset by complications resulting from her father’s sudden death, Keyonna copes alongside a beleaguered brother, a family friend girl crush, and a booze-binging mom. The family gets by one way or another, until it doesn’t.

Especially resonant is the Portman from Anywhere But Here, evoking the poignant mother-daughter relationship. Susan Sarandon’s Adele means well, as does Montego Glover’s Ovetta, but she just can’t get the parenting bit right; a hotel cleaning worker, she’s either hyper-mothering or proclaiming a right to her own life. As the play’s center, Kara Young as Keyonna, is petite and energetic, a force against circumstance beyond her control. Under Kate Whoriskey’s fine direction, the characters convey a means of survival. Yes, all the Natalie Portmans make for funny moments, but for full effect, they may rely on your Natalie Portman literacy.